


If this was love

by tokyofish



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-05
Updated: 2009-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-08 09:52:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1936458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyofish/pseuds/tokyofish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoro figures out what love is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If this was love

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: One Piece is © Eiichiro Oda, SHUEISHA Inc., Viz Media, Toei, Funimation, etc. This is a nonprofit fanwork.

Why do we become more beautiful when there is sun, when there is fire, when there is the sharp, bitter pang of realization and the shuttered windows of our hearts fly open? I look at you and know no one can love you as I do. Some may love you better, some may love you more, but they cannot love with the might of my love, the heart-clawing agony, the soul-shaking thunder.

This was never meant to happen. For him I would turn my back on you, but for you, I would turn my back on the world.

If this was love, Zoro thought, it was the first time.

The first time, the last time, and all the times in-between.

He had never before had a feeling like this. He was sure he never would again.

Once he had thought that to be in love with someone was to be weak. That to expose your vulnerabilities to another, to leave yourself open was to be cut by the enemy's blade with nothing to gain. There were no strategies he could use in love, no skills that would ensure a victory. To be in love was to take a loss. But that had been his own naiveté. Love, he thought, was the same, whether it was love for a master, a parent, a friend, or even a lover. It was not a weakness, rather, it made you face your weaknesses – your own fears, your own flaws. Perhaps others were more skilled in the art of love, but he was as dedicated a student as any other.

Love, he thought, was a battle. And battles were things he could win.

In this too he would emerge victorious. This too was a battle he could not afford to lose. To lose this battle was to lose something more important than his dignity, his honor, or his own life. So he would continue to fight, no matter how slow the going or how distant the goal.

Someday, she too would find herself fighting this same battle.

 

"Hmmm?" Nami said, turning and tucking a flyaway strand of hair behind one ear. She hadn't missed the fact that he was looking at her through half-lidded eyes. "Amazing, you're not asleep? Ah, I get it – you're admiring how cute I look."

"I was just thinking," he said, shutting his eyes, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

"What? Hey, don't go to sleep! What the hell is that supposed to mean?! Zoro!"


End file.
